[Avodah] Showing affection to children in beit k'nesset

[chana at kolsassoon.org.uk]

RJR wrote:

>See S"A O"C 98:1 (Rama- sfardim iirc kiss hands after an aliya )

Well it depends on your Sephardim ...

We just got back from spending Pesach in a hotel (a five star one by 
the sea, so clearly we are major contributors to the downfall of 
Orthodox Jewry as we know it).  In any event the majority of the people 
who took part were French speaking Sephardim, with the overwhelming 
majority of those being Moroccans (with I think I handful of Algerians 
and Tunisians).  After each aliya or other kibud, the man getting the 
kibud then proceeded to kiss the entire front row (plus rabbi, gabbai, 
chazzan etc) on both cheeks!  

(BTW Any form of kissing post an aliya not my husband's minhag - or 
that of his shul - although it may of course be that they have both 
become too Britishified, I can't promise it was like that in the old 
country).  

Going back to our hotel sojourn, the time it took to complete an aliya 
was independent of the fact that it took them well over two and a half 
hours on a shabbas or yom tov morning to complete Shachris and hallel - 
*completely* missing sof zman tephila!  They were, to be fair, 
extremely tuneful,  (the Morrocans are, to my mind, the most tuneful of 
the Sephardim, at least to a more Western ear) as they sang their way 
through every single one of the psukei d'zimra. 

After that first morning, my husband davened with the Ashkenazim! - 
(at least for Shabbas/Yom Tov Shachris!)

>KT
>Joel Rich
 
Regards

Chana



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